Further resources | National Railway Museum

Discover a wealth of information and resources to help you get started on your railway research journey.

Here you'll find resource packs on a wide range of topics, pointers to other archives and collections which may be useful and more. If you're still stuck with your research, plan a visit to Search Engine where our team will be able to help you—or take a look at our Inreach service which can carry out research on your behalf.

Resource packs

These packs have been compiled by the Search Engine team to help you research popular locomotives, collections and themes in railway history.

Resource packs

Railway songs

Author and social historian Colin Bargery has been singing folk songs for 40 years, and has a special interest in songs from the Industrial Revolution. He's compiled a collection of popular songs about railways for our archive, titled Songs From the Age of Steam. You can find out more on the Songs From the Age of Steam website,

Railway songs

The opening of a railway was a major event and cause for grand celebrations. Cannons and muskets were fired, church bells rung, and bunting hung in the streets and around the new stations. As businessmen became increasingly aware of the commercial value of the railway, the opening of even relatively minor branch lines meant lavish celebrations.

The opening ceremonies usually comprised three main components: a procession of local dignitaries together with representatives of the railway company and contractors, an inaugural train journey, and celebratory meals for the dignitaries. Sometimes separate meals were organised for the navvies and common folk of the area.

Celebrations were attended by large crowds in holiday mood—an ideal market for ballad sellers who took the opportunity to sell songs printed especially for the occasion.

Songs

The railways were an important source of employment for agricultural workers made destitute by changes in farming during the early 19th century. Contrary to popular assumptions, Irish workers were always in a minority, making up about 30% of the workforce. Most early navvies came from the north of England, where much of the early railway building took place. Canal digging continued well into the railway era and navvies moved easily between the two sorts of work—but those working on the railways vastly outnumbered those on canals. At the peak of railway construction there were about 100,000 railway navvies.

The work was arduous—shifting 20 tons of earth was a normal day’s work—not to mention dangerous. Three accidental deaths per mile was considered an acceptable average, but the work was well paid and navvies lived high on the hog. Their wild lifestyle made them a target for the attentions of the temperance movement and evangelical Christians (often the same people) who sought to save them, body and soul.

Songs

External resources

The National Register of Archives will tell you what records a particular organisation holds
Access to Archives will provide you with the catalogues of collections held at different archive centres
The Archives Hub enables you to search across descriptions of archives held in over 200 UK institutions
The National Archives ARCHON directory can help with more localised research interests
Brunel University's Transport History Collection

Resource packs

Resource packs

Locomotives

Exhibitions and events

Themes

Railway songs

Railway songs

Railway openings

Navvies

External resources

Directories

Image research

Notable railway collections

Science Museum Group Journal

Part of the Science Museum Group